Using hierarchical process analysis to assess the level of importance of multiple intelligences in undergraduate students

Abstract

Multiple Intelligences (MIs) are a set of eight individual skills that can be improved in the context of higher education. The possibility of identifying and classifying these abilities enables effective action to be taken to develop the most relevant MIs for the student according to their area of study. The aim of this article is to describe the use of the Hierarchical Process Analysis (HPA) method as a tool for classifying the level of attention to be given to each MI in a sample of higher education students. To do this, a questionnaire was used to survey the MIs of a sample of 500 students from a public higher education institution. The researchers then used the AHP to sort and classify the MIs in the sample. It was thus possible to conclude that the AHP can be used as a form of classification and evaluation for the theory of the MIs, helping to choose which MIs need a closer look and which do not need intervention. The limitations of the research were that it used only one multi-criteria analysis tool. Therefore, for future work, we intend to use the database obtained from the study and apply other multi-criteria analysis methodologies.

Keywords: Hierarchical Analysis Method; Multiple Intelligences; Education; Multicriteria Analysis.